2014 Recipients

Green Champion Award – Municipal

City of Vancouver, BC

The City of Vancouver has long been recognized as an international leader in municipal sustainability. Its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan establishes the goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020, and won the 2014 Best Overall Policy in Global Leadership Award from the World Green Building Council. The city's environmental achievements are many. A member of FCM and ICLEI's Partners for Climate Protection program since 1995, Vancouver has achieved Milestone 5 for both corporate and community GHG emission reductions. It has also successfully delivered nine innovative plans, studies and projects supported by FCM's Green Municipal Fund, including several related to its award-winning projects in the former Olympic Village and False Creek Sustainability Precinct. A strong vision for a sustainable future has earned Vancouver four FCM Sustainable Communities Awards over the past 10 years, most recently in the 2014 transportation category for its Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Pilot Program. Future plans include a comprehensive building retrofit strategy, a demolition and construction waste diversion plan and an organics diversion program for multi-unit residential buildings. Vancouver continues to work with its partners to learn from everyone's experience and implement programs and policies toward a sustainable future for our residents.

Green Champion Award – Individual

Alan DeSousa

Mayor of Saint-Laurent, City of Montréal, QC

With almost 25 years of service as an elected official, Alan DeSousa is a true champion of sustainability. Mayor of Saint-Laurent since 2002, he has led several local sustainability projects. In particular, he has played a key role in extending recycling collection to all residential buildings, implemented sustainable parking lot regulations, and developed the "Mon école écolo" (Greening My School) program as well as a local transportation plan, an urban forestry plan and a 2011-2015 sustainable development plan. Saint-Laurent was also the first municipal government in Quebec to achieve ISO 14001 certification. As a member of the executive committee for the City of Montréal and its agglomeration, he spearheaded Écotech (Quebec's Cleantech Cluster) as well as the City's waste management and sustainable development programs and plans. He also initiated the creation of a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for both corporate and community emissions, which led to the adoption of a GHG reduction plan in 2013. Saint-Laurent is the only community within the City of Montréal that has implemented all of the plan's actions. Mr. DeSousa also championed a pilot project for an innovative approach to LED street lighting, earning Saint-Laurent an honourable mention in the 2014 FCM Sustainable Communities Awards energy category.